Private Mial Vincent, 73rd Indiana Infantry, Civil War Manuscript Archive

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American Historical Ephemera & Photography, I...

By Cowan's Auctions

Jun 26, 2020

Set Reminder 2020-06-26 10:00:00 2020-06-26 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : American Historical Ephemera & Photography, Including African Americana:Premier Auction https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/cowans/american-historical-ephemera-photography-including-african-americana-premier-auction-5208
Cowan's Auctions is delighted to present the June 26 American Historical Ephemera and Photography Auction, including 55 lots devoted to the African American experience, over 175 lots dating from the Civil War Era, and more than 60 lots documenting life in the American West. Cowan's Auctions dawnie@cowans.com

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• Lot Description
  Private Mial Vincent, 73rd Indiana Infantry, Civil War Manuscript Archive
  
  Lot of 26 letters, including 19 written by Mial Vincent to his father and older brother Alonzo, dating from August-December of 1862. Additional Civil War-date letters from a 20th Indiana soldier and a family friend are included, as well as late 19th-early 20th century correspondence with the family.
  
  Mial Vincent enlisted in northern Indiana in August 1862. The family was living in Hobart, Lake County. Vincent died of disease on Jan. 8, 1863 (official records indicate dysentery). Three letters are from G.N. Sprague, another family friend, including one dated Feb. 11, 1863, telling the Vincents that he would send Mial's belongings to the Hobart train station where they could pick them up.
  
  Vincent's letters are a bit difficult to read. He seems to be barely literate. There are no paragraph breaks and he jumps subject matter throughout - going from battle details to telling people to write to sending money home and back to the battle in a single sentence at times. However, it is the view of the typical soldier from farm country, with little "worldly experience." The trip through Indiana and Kentucky was probably more of the world than most of these boys ever saw.
  
  The 73rd regiment went to Camp Rose in South Bend for training and organization, then left immediately for Louisville, KY in expectation of a raid by Morgan. When the raid did not come, they were sent to Lexington, then back to Louisville, shifting their focus to Braxton Bragg.
  
  The first letters from Mial document these early movements. The one dated Aug. 23, 1862 is from near Lexington. There is also a note from George N. Sprague on the same sheet. In the second letter, dated Sept. 8, they have returned to Louisville to Camp Buell. He also speculates on whether there will be a draft or not.
  
  The third letter is dated only "September the [blank], 1862," but from about the middle of the month. He bemoans that they are in the middle of 80,000 men and can't get out to do anything, such as having their picture taken. He thinks they are getting more artillery on the 17th. He also discusses punishments for stealing, such as having to carry a log on their shoulders while marching. A few days later, Sept. 19, he adds a bit. They went to Louisville for a grand review and these country boys were "dumb struck" in Mial's words. He reports that a rebel force marched on Indianapolis, but were turned back by Union forces, suffering great losses in the process. His letter of Sept. 22 describes chasing Braxton Bragg nearly to the southern Kentucky border. The letter of Sept. 23rd continues the "chase." Sept. 29th he tells them that he is now the cook for their unit. He is clearly following the actions of McClellan on the peninsula (although most "information" is probably rumor). Numbers of dead and prisoners seems to be a bit inflated.
  
  The next couple of letters describe the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky (Oct. 8, 1862) He refers to it as the "Battle of the Springs" as one of the goals was to control Doctors Creek, one of the only sources of running water in the area. [Oct. 10] "We have been almost all over old Kentuck. We started from Louisville the first of October. We have been marching all of the time. I haven't seen any of the rebels yet but some of the boys have seen some of them....we could hear the cannons all day. When they had the battle to the Springs they fought all day and they still stayed there until we came up and they skedaddled. I tell you it was a fairly hard fight for they said that they would fight until every man was lost but they didn't stay quite as long as they thought they would....We lost about one thousand killed and wounded. The rebels loss we don't know how many they lost but they lost more than we did..." His letter of Sept. 13 was addressed to his older brother Alonzo. He regaled him with more gorey details: "We camp about half a mile from the battle ground. Some of the boys went over to the battle ground and they said that it look pretty hard to see the men lay dead with from two to sixteen in a pile...some of them had their legs shot off..."
  
  Tuesday the 20 1862: "...I have seen most all of Kentucky. I have seen some of the hardest places that you ever seen. I have seen some of the hills down here or rather mountains I should call them for we can go up on them and see all over. I have been in sight of the rebels. We was as close as we could see our men shoot or rather see the flash of their guns. That is the only time that we have been in sight of them some but we have been chasing them for fifteen days."
  
  November the 25 Camp near Nashville: "...Some of our boys are sick with the measles....I think there was seven that went [to the hospital]." He attributes the illness to the fact that it is getting cold.
  
  Sunday the 17, 1862 / December: "Camp near Nashville....I have been under the weather for about two or three weeks, but I think I will get along... Mr. Burt Woods has been out here to see his boy but he came too late. he died the day before he got here and was buried before he reached here. he felt very bad. He couldn't hardly talk to us for a long time...One of our Lieutenants has resigned or rather not resigned we got a paper for him to resign so we gave it tohim. I made him get up and then he said that he would stay and give us what we needed but we took it to the Colonel and so he started him so he went home yesterday and we were glad to see him start for he was as mean a man as we had in our regiment. His name is Mr. Reed."
  
  In spite of his protestations, Vincent did not get better. He would succumb to disease three weeks after this letter was written, Jan. 8, 1863.
  
  Fifteen of Vincent's and Sprague's letters were transcribed by an earlier owner. These are included in the lot. There is an additional file of research material included.

  Condition

  Fifteen of Vincent and Sprague's letters were transcribed by an earlier owner. These are included in the lot.
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